AP (3/3): Judge rules governor illegally blocked new nursing staff ratios

From Associated Press via the San Francisco Chronicle
Dated Thrusday March 3

Judge rules governor illegally blocked new nursing staff ratios
By Jim Wasserman, Associated Press Writer

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered a major potential setback Thursday when a judge tentatively ruled that he illegally blocked a law boosting the number of nurses needed to staff California's hospitals.

Sacramento County Judge Judy Holzer Hersher ruled tentatively in favor of a preliminary injunction to lift emergency state regulations that stopped the law — the first of its kind nationally — from taking effect Jan. 1.

Holzer Hersher's ruling, the first step in several possible legal scenarios leading toward a trial, represented an early victory for the 60,000-member California Nurses Association, which has protested the governor's decision in numerous public settings for months. The union nurses have marched on the Capitol, flown message-trailing planes over the governor's home and picketed his speeches and public events. In turn, Schwarzenegger said during a recent women's day event that he was "kicking their butts."

Thursday's court decision sets the stage for a 10 a.m. hearing Friday in Sacramento Superior Court where lawyers for the governor, California Hospital Association and California Nurses Association will conduct oral arguments regarding the ruling.

Read more.

http://ArnoldWatch.org Weblog - March 3nd, 2005 - 7:00 pm

Who's Kickin' Butt Now?
By Jerry Flanagan & Doug Heller

Last December, Arnold shamelessly bragged that he was kicking nurses' butts in Sacramento after he threw out patient protection rules guaranteeing that hospitals have enough nurses on duty.

But a tentative court ruling today canned the governor's order, saving the butts of countless California patients.

The result was predictable given the governor's weak legal ground, which is another reason why Arnold shouldn't have done the hospitals' bidding in the first place. Now that the law has spoken, the gov should pay the state's and nurses' legal fees out of his own pocket and promise not to waste taxpayer money with another legal maneuver to delay patient protections.